Saudi Arabia Improves Business License Procedures

The Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has streamlined processes for 2018 to support foreign ease of investment. Vision 2030 calls for increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) from 3.8 percent to 5.7 percent of GDP by 2030. SAGIA’s new processes improve times for issuing a new license, renewing a license, or amending a license. Through these changes, investors can now expect to process a new license in under 4 days, whereas the previous average time to process a new license was 53 working days. Investors are now required to provide a financial statement along with certified commercial registration to obtain a new license. The former iteration of the process required 8 documents.

Additionally, investors can expect an average time to renew a license of 30 minutes and an average time to amend a license in under 4 days. Inquiries for new and existing investors will also become more efficient, reducing response times. Since the new system went into effect, SAGIA has issued 17 new business licenses within two weeks.

The relevant links for investors can be found here on SAGIA’s website. Companies meeting certain criteria are eligible to apply for SAGIA’s Instant License, an online service that takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.